I’ll ensure deaths on Akoko-Abuja road end — PDP senatorial candidate

The senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo North Senatorial District, Dr. Olusegun Alonge, tells PETER DADA that he will draw government attention to the deplorable condition of Akoko roads if elected

The presidential candidate of your party believes in restructuring. What is your own view about it?

Restructuring is the only way forward. I know people are afraid of changing government; I believe in restructuring. It is a good idea which I am going to push forward if I am elected into the Senate. This is what I believe will help this country. What we have now is an empire state system, where everything goes to the centre, which in turn, decides what is best for everyone but all our problems are still local. If that ability to solve problems locally is in the hands of the local people, then they will be able to use the resources of that locality to solve the problems there. That is what restructuring is all about.

It is not about destroying Nigeria or creating Nigeria in a different way; it is about empowering people at the local level and solving local problems. It is about creating a limited Federal Government that is only in charge of immigration, defence, security, trades and foreign policy. Let the security be local; let power be local; let everything be local.

By the grace of God, when we send them (current ruling government) out, the country will be restructured.

As the senatorial candidate of the PDP in Ondo North, you will be facing the candidate of the ruling party both at the state and national levels in the election. How are you going to survive this?

It is an issue of election, not a matter of personalities. We must table the issues and the people know the issues. Ondo North people are very vibrant, intelligent, highly educated and they know where the problems are. They know they are not being represented well. They know the government of the day is not for the people; the government is against their progress and they are eager for a change of government, so long as we can make this about issues and not personalities. I can assure you that the PDP at the senatorial, House of Representatives, House of Assembly and presidential elections will sweep Ondo North Senatorial District and the entire state.

It was learnt that immediately after you emerged the candidate, the APC leaders in your area were in jubilation and boasting that the election would be a walkover. What is your reaction to this?

They must be mistaken. My strength is not in noisemaking. My strength and target are in going for the election and winning the election. If you look at the primary election, I was able to connect with the voters and tell them the issues; discuss with them and that’s what we are going to do in this election. We must let the people know where we were some years ago, before the APC man went to the Senate, and where we are now. So, those who think it’s a walkover for them have a lot of work on their hands. Our people are not blind and they are not fools.

What is your assessment of the representatives of Ondo North at the National Assembly?

I want to look at it from the angle of what I am going to do differently and why we must have a good representative. We must have somebody who knows the problems of the people, who will able to present their problems, who will be able to let the people achieve their goals. If you look at the area of infrastructure for instance, our roads are terribly bad and we need somebody that will go there to let the government know the economic value of the area to the country and how much of a negative impact the bad roads have on the economy of the people of the area.

If you try to get somebody to support you, you must be able to tell them the benefits they will derive, the risk and the problems. So, from the perspective of representation, what we will do differently is to represent the people in a way that government can see how much people will contribute to the region; how much negative impact there is now and how much the benefits can accrue to the government if it invests in that senatorial district.

How are you going to tackle that if you get to the Senate?

We have to tackle it as a block. We must all work together as a team, even with the state governor, to present the interest of Ondo North people to the Federal Government to ensure that the government knows these people are paying taxes without benefits. This must stop. If our people are paying taxes, our government must also pay them back and these taxes must be able to work for our people. Ondo North people are very loyal to this country. They are paying their taxes; they work very hard, they are loving people and therefore the government of this nation owes them a lot. Our roads have become death traps. Akoko is the gateway to the nation’s capital but all the roads are in terrible state of disrepair. I will draw attention to this development in form of motion and regular points of order until something is done to end the constant deaths being recorded on our roads.

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